soul, What can be expected but that Satan should re-occupy the post from which he had been driven, and bind in stronger chains than ever his unhappy captive ? This our blessed Lord has taught us to expect. He says, that Satan, under such cir- cumstances, " will bring with him seven other spirits more wicked, if possible, than himself ; and they will enter into the backslider's heart, and dwell there : and that the last state of that man will be worse that the first"." The heart of the Apostate must of necessity become more hardened in propor- tion as he has " rebelled against the light," and provoked God to give him up to his own heart's lusts. Hence the Apostle speaks of it as ''impossible to renew such an one to repent- ance"." By this I understand, not that it is ahsolutehj im- possible, but so difficult as to be beyond all reasonable ex- pectation.]
3. In respect of condemnation —
[If guilt be increased, an increase of punishment must fol- low of course. " The servant that knows his lord's will and does it not, will be beaten with many stripes ; " whilst he who sins through ignorance will be beaten with compara- tively " few stripes p." Hence our Lord declared to the cities of Bethsaida and Capernaum, that it should be " more toler- able for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment than for them "^ : " for though their wickedness was not of the pre- cise nature with that which so abounded in Sodom, yet it was committed in the midst of advantages which Sodom and Go- morrha never enjoyed. The same may be said of the Apos- tate : " If we sin wilfully after that we have received the know- ledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indig- nation, which shall devour us." And this judgment will be proportioned to the guilt which we have contracted by our abuse of our pre-eminent advantages : for (it is added), "He that despised Moses' law died without mercy, vmder two or three witnesses. Of how much sorer punisliment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the Covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of Grace ' P"
From all these considerations it is clear, that the last state of the Apostate is worse than his beginning: and that it would have " been better for him never to have known the way of righteousness, than, after he has known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto him."]
Appli-
" Matt. xii. 43—45. " Heb. vi. 4—6. " Luke xii. 47, 48.
'I Matt. X. 15. ' Heb. x. 20— 2g.